PBI-Colombia accompanies Peace Community of San José de Apartadó at ceremony where Colombian government apologizes for state violence

Published by Brent Patterson on June 5, 2025June 5, 2025

Photo by Mauricio Giraldo.

On June 5, PBI-Colombia posted on social media: “Today we accompany the Peace Community of San Jose de Apartado to the act of pardon by President Gustavo Petro for the responsibility of the Colombian State for crimes committed between 1997 and 2007 against the community. After 30 years of violence against the Peace Community and more than 300 murders of its members, President Gustavo Petro asks for forgiveness and recognizes the non-compliance of the judiciary in the investigation of the massacres.”

Earlier in the day, the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó posted on social media: “Today we look forward to receiving recognition and public apologies from the President of the Republic of Colombia for the crimes committed by the Colombian State against our community life project.”

The Peace Community had also reposted on social media this statement from the National Agency for Legal Defense of the State (ANDJE): “This Thursday [June 5], the Colombian State will publicly acknowledge its responsibility for the serious violations suffered by the San José de Apartadó Peace Community. A step towards truth, justice and dignity.”

And the President of Colombia posted: “Today, in the Plaza de Armas of @Casa_Narino [in Bogota], the President @PetroGustavo will lead the public act of recognition of international responsibility and public apologies to the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó. Tune in to the live stream at 10 a.m. [11 am ET] on all @infopresidencia networks and be part of this historic event for truth, dignity, and peace.”

El Espectador also reports: “The government of Gustavo Petro, on behalf of the Colombian State, will recognize international responsibility and offer apologies this Thursday [June 5] to the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó.”

That article explains: “It is the group of peasants and victims of the armed conflict who, since 1997, have met in a single community with self-government in Urabá Antioquia, standing up against all forms of war and declaring themselves neutral from the State.”

It further notes: “The Community, distributed in different farms that were abandoned during the war, has declared itself in open opposition to any criminal group that has passed through and still remains in the area. And, over time, they declared themselves independent of state institutions, in the face of ineffectiveness and the association of security forces with criminal groups.”

Caracol Radio adds: “The ceremony responds to case 12.325 before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, IACHR, which documents serious human rights violations against members of this community since 1997. Among the reported events are massacres, extrajudicial executions, threats and forced displacements, often with the complicity or tolerance of state agents, according to the authorities.”

State violence against the Peace Community

In April 2025, Amnesty International documented:

“Despite declaring themselves neutral, and almost precisely for this reason, the members of the Peace Community have suffered violence from the FARC guerrilla, paramilitaries, the armed groups that succeeded them, and state agents who, instead of protecting them, attacked them.

February 21 marked 20 years since the gruesome 2005 massacre. Although it was the sixth the Community had suffered, it was so horrifying that it is remembered as The Massacre of San José de Apartadó. This atrocity was committed by paramilitaries in the presence of members of the 17th Brigade of the Colombian Army who murdered eight people with machetes, including Luis Eduardo Guerra, one of the main Community leaders, and three children under the age of 10.”

“At the end of that year, and during 2006, state agents continued to attack the Peace Community in various ways, even committing what are inappropriately labelled ‘false positives’ (the unlawful killing of civilians falsely presented as ‘guerrillas killed in combat’) against members of the Community.”

Accompaniment

The Peace Community was established on March 23, 1997, and Peace Brigades International has provided accompaniment since 1999.